


we ride at dawn

by dontlookatmydarkpast (allfouru)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Gang NCT, Heavy Angst, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mafia NCT, Making Out, also realizing i dont know how to tag, haechans a sassy queen, i dont know where this came from, im sorry, jaemin keeps losing his glock, mark and hyuck are soulmates, probably very confusing, this is all over the place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22781503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allfouru/pseuds/dontlookatmydarkpast
Summary: Donghyuck’s screaming was the only thing you could hear.His broken, wordless sobs of anger and resentment and loss.He felt numb to everything.-----In which Donghyuck remembers the best parts of the last few years, on the worst day of his life.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	we ride at dawn

**Author's Note:**

> the world needed more markhyuck gang au so i wrote my own
> 
> this story was finished over winter break in december (2019) but i've been too scared to post it on my wattpad so i decided to post it here
> 
> this story is my literal baby and it makes me want to cry just thinking about how proud i am of it so please be kind to me :)
> 
> this is the first time i'm posting on ao3 so i hope i've done everything right

Donghyuck felt as if his whole world was crumbling.

He watched as if stuck in time. The face that was stone cold to the rest of the world yet so easy for him to read.

He saw that behind the dullness of his eyes at the moment, behind the last look of grey, there was fear and pain and hatred. The curtain of his gaze hiding his true emotions inside.

But underneath everything, into the farthest depths of his soul, Donghyuck saw acceptance.

He saw it through the thick and hot tears escaping his eyes, and the sorrow and mourning that had already begun.

They were stuck in time.

Donghyuck and him.

Donghyuck and Mark.

His--their whole world came crumbling down to a pile of rubble, as for the hundredth time, Donghyuck saw the love of his life, taken away from him.

Except for this time, it wasn’t just a dream.

January was Haechan’s least favorite month. It was the coldest of the year and made something as simple as leaving his house a chore. But he was hungry and his pantry didn’t contain anything even slightly appetizing.

So, he bundled himself in his warmest clothes and began his walk down the street to the corner store.

It was too cold in January for snow, so he was instead met with the wind chills traveling down his neck and up the openings in his shield of jackets and pants. His small town wasn’t bustling now, the lights in apartments were on and stores were closing up for the day, mopping the filthy floors and counting the day’s revenue.

It was calm, and that was perhaps the only good thing according to Donghyuck.

He had made it to the small 24-hour convenience store, walking in quickly to be met with the warmth of the building. He scurried over to the ramen aisle and picked out a few things to last him the next couple of days. Afterward, he made his way to the small refrigerators at the very end of the store and picked out his favorite drinks. Half of them were energy drinks and the others were simple juices.

He nodded his head to himself, a signal that he was ready to checkout.

The cashier that sat hunched over on the stool put down his phone and got ready to scan all of Donghuck’s items. He did so, accepted Donghyuck’s outstretched hand that held the correct amount of money to cover the full cost of the purchase, bagged the items, and then handed Donghyuck the change.

If he had noticed Donghyuck’s staring then he didn’t pay it any mind.

“Thank you, have a nice day,” Donghyuck had spoken to him quietly, taking the bag from the counter and heading towards the exit.

Before he could leave through the door however, a large man with caramel hair came in wearing a thick black leather jacket. 

Donghyuck had stepped out of the way to allow him to walk through the door, but before he could take his leave the man had charged at the boy behind the counter and was suddenly holding a knife to his throat.

“Ah, what the fuck Yukhei!” The boy had screamed.

“Hey shut up! Where’s mom?!”

“How the fuck should I know! She left months ago, not that you’d know you stuck up asshole!”

Donghyuck just watched in shock as the two bickered back and forth, the man named Yukhei still holding a knife to the other’s throat. Donghyuck was stunned in his place by the door. Apparently, he hadn’t been as silent as he thought he was because he must have made a noise that caught the attention of the other two.

“Oh, that’s just fan-fucking-tastic, you couldn’t have waited to attack me until after I left the store, now look what you’ve done, you got a poor kid involved! God, you’re so dumb!” The boy had yelled, yanking the arm that held the knife away from his throat. He pressed something behind the counter that made a clicking sound from where Donghyuck was standing. 

He looked over and realized that the door was now locked. Panic took over him and his eyes blew to the size of saucers.

Yukhei grumbled something under his breath before pocketing the knife and walking through a door behind the counter and out of sight.

“What a fucking bastard,” The boy had grumbled. He leaned over and picked up the stool that had fallen from the earlier attack and brushed his bangs out of his eyes.

He looked over at Donghyuck, seeming to now know what to say, “Hey, uh, sorry, that you uh, had to see that. It’s a funny story, actually, you see, uh, uh,” He paused, his face not moving to meet any sort of emotion, “Ya see, he’s actually my brother, and uh, well, I guess you could say he, uh, oh god this sounds so bad, he, uh, he does that a lot, so uh, don’t be too worried about it I guess?”

Donghyuck just stood there, looking about ready to pass out.

The boy just sighed, “Okay, look. I know that this whole thing seems really weird and not okay, but just please don’t tell anyone about all of,” He motioned to the area in front of him, “That, because I honestly don’t want to have to deal with any social services or police showing up and getting involved in my life, okay?” He looked sincere with his words and his eyes were, unlike the rest of his face, practically begging Donghyuck to just agree.

“Hey, tell ya what, I’ll even give you your cashback and then some and then we can call it even, sound good?” He had started walking over to a still stunned Donghyuck, 100 some dollars in his hand. 

Donghyuck didn’t know what he was doing, his brain was telling him to get the fuck out of there, but his body refused to listen. 

The other boy was a foot away from him and had slipped the cash into the bag that was dangling from Donghyuck’s fingers. He moved and got extremely close to Donghyuck, reaching around him and unlocking the door to the store.

“My name’s Mark by the way. Have a safe rest of your evening!” He gave a quick half-smile before Donghyuck’s brain started to reboot and he pushed himself out of the store and back onto the chilly street, with two things on his mind;

“What the fuck just happened,” and, “Why was that guy so damn attractive?”

After years and years of hiding and running, they had finally found who they were looking for. 

The group of men that had held a grudge against Dream, and more specifically, Mark, had finally tracked them down and attacked. 

None of them had seen it coming, all too immersed in their own battles to notice that their oldest, wisest, brother, who was perched inside a window of the old warehouse, had begun a battle of his own.

“Hey, Donghyuck!”

If you had asked him how it was that they all came together, he honestly couldn’t have told you. They were just a bunch of ragged misfits without a place in the world to call their own. 

So, they banded together and made a place for themselves.

“What’s up Jaem?”

After sitting down at the kitchen table in their shared three-bedroom apartment (or base of operations, as they liked to call it), they decided that Dream was the best name for a few reasons.

One: they were a Dream Team like no other. A well-oiled machine, some might say, even though they had only known each other for upwards of a couple of months. 

Two: forming a gang was not at the top of all of their lists for, “What I Want to be When I Grow Up.” They, like so many others their age, had much higher hopes and dreams for themselves, but this was reality. 

And three: it just had a nice ring to it. 

The Dreamies.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where I put my Glock would ya?”

At first, the group of seven was just that; a group of seven boys, struggling to provide for themselves in life and wandering down a dark path alone. They were fast, although slightly unconventional, friends.

It was Mark, the stone-faced mystery, that brought them together in the first place. But also the cause of their introduction into the world of actual gangs. 

“Did you really lose it again?”

Mark’s father had some bad business with a couple of different gangs, all asking him for money that he had borrowed and now owed them. He had gone into hiding in an attempt to at least be able to raise his family in peace before they ruined his life. But all that went down the drain when his oldest son had been found and taken in by one of the gangs. Long story short, after Mark’s mother, found out what was going on, she left him, his father was confronted by the gangs that had now found him as well as by his own son, who basically spit on him and left, and Mark was left to pick up the pieces of his now broken father. 

“Hey! I didn’t lose it, I just misplaced it!”

“Well did you check in the safe, where we always put it when you forget about it?”

“...No.”

But the much more interesting story was how, Donghyuck, an innocent 17-year-old at the time who had almost witnessed a murder, formed a gang with the boy that was almost killed.

He walked through the aisles of the department store, looking for a new shirt to wear to a job interview that night. He had already worn his only other nice shirt practically to death so he figured that since everything was on sale, he could scrounge up some extra pennies and get himself a new interview shirt. 

As he was walking past the last rack of long sleeve button-ups, he saw a familiar figure from the corner of his eye.

“Seriously, what is this dudes problem?!” He thought to himself, trying to remain as calm as possible.

Whenever Donghyuck left the house he would find that the other male would somehow end up being there with him. He didn’t know if he was a stalker or what, but whenever he would leave a place to go back home, the other man would go the opposite direction. He never caught sight of the man's face, but he could easily recognize him by his beat-up white converse with unique pen scratches all over them and his patterned leather jacket. He always had a hoodie on underneath that would hide most of his other physical features.

As Donghyuck left the shirt section in the store, he made a really stupid plan for himself. 

He pretended to mumble something to himself, only to turn around in his tracks and head straight for the dressing rooms. 

As he expected, the other man was not far behind.

He walked into the small room that had the dressing rooms in it and placed his basket on a bench at the opposite end of where the door to the room is. Donghyuck then went inside the dressing room closest to the door and sat on one of the small chairs inside. 

He waited a few minutes until he finally heard footsteps entering the room. They seemed to stop once they entered the larger room for a second, before making their way towards the first dressing room. 

“I’ve got you right where I want you,” Donghyuck thought. 

As the man finally entered the dressing room, Donghyuck quickly stood up from his chair, closed the door behind the man, and locked it, putting his back against the door to prevent the man from being able to get out.

Just as he was about to begin interrogating the mysterious stalker, the man turned around and took his hood down, revealing a familiar face.

“What the fuck?!"

A man, suited in all black, had come up behind him in his most vulnerable moment, brought the chloroform rag to his nose and mouth, and took him hostage, then and there. It hadn’t knocked him out entirely, just enough to make him slightly less aware of his surroundings.

Mark, who was normally the sharpest of everyone, didn’t even try to fight back.

“Alright, here’s the plan--” 

“Hold up Markie, I thought you said there was gonna be doughnuts?” 

“Donghyuck, we’ve already told you countless times, we are not going to get doughnuts every time we discuss a new plan.” 

“Oh shut up Jeno, no one asked you!” 

“Guys can we just please focus--”

“Hey hold on one second, who put Mark in charge?! I do not remember signing off on that.” 

“Just let him be Jaemin Hyung, Mark Hyung is the only reason we aren’t all dead on the street right now.” 

“That, and he has to do something of use for this group.” 

“Oof, Donghyuck just roasted Mark Hyung.” 

“Hey guys has anyone seen my--” 

“I swear to all that is good and holy, Na Jaemin if you lost you’re Glock again I will--”

“GUYS!” 

Everyone turned their attention back to the front of the table where Mark looked like he was trying to not lose his shit.

“Can we all just please get along for a few minutes so I can fill you in on the plan that will help us pay rent for the next few months?” He asked, his look practically daring someone to interrupt him. 

Mark’s patience was being tested, and that was something that would make anyone shut up immediately.

“Thank you. Now, the first order of business--” He was about to start explaining their current mission when a slightly scared looking Chenle raised his hand from the back.

Mark took a deep breath, “Yes, Chenle?”

“Can you talk a little slower please?”

“I can explain--”

“It’s you! Why the fuck have you been following me for weeks!”

“I’ll explain everything, but I’d prefer if we went somewhere more private, I don’t want the wrong person to hear this conversation.”

It was the boy from the corner store a few weeks ago. The one who was almost killed by his brother and who gave Donghyuck 112 dollars from his cash register to keep him quiet.

Donghyuck looked him up and down, deciding on his answer, “Okay.”

He had just saved Donghyuck from a surprise attack. 

It was after he was saved that Donghyuck had looked up intending to see his best friend and love of his life with his signature goofy grin, only to find empty windows throughout the entirety of the courtyard. 

“I’m sorry that you had to see what happened that day.” The man, who Haechan had remembered was called Mark, said to him as he drank a warm cup of coffee. It was an odd choice, a coffee shop, for someone who wanted to have a serious conversation in private. He brushed it off though, now focusing on the conversation in front of him.

“I mean, it’s fine I guess. I just--I mean you’re like, okay, right?”

Mark laughed a little at that, though his facial expression hasn't changed, “Yes I’m perfectly fine, thank you for asking.”

“That sort of occurrence is actually pretty common in my family surprisingly. My mom left us a few months ago, my brothers a maniac that betrayed us and my dad is just a sad excuse for a man, and considering that gangs also somehow got tied up into this mess, you’d be surprised the number of death threats I get in a day.”

Donghyuck didn’t really know what to say. This man--Mark--just gave him his whole, depressing-ass life story in less than a minute and is expecting an answer from him?

“I was just following you to make sure nothing… bad would happen to you. I know my brother, and he does some really messed up stuff, and I didn’t want him to end up dragging an innocent person into his mess, so I’m sorry if I freaked you out or you thought I was stalking you or some shit.”

He just nodded his head, it was a lot to take in.

“So anyway, tell me about yourself.”

The twisting, aching feeling in his gut told him something was up.

He had finished off his current opponent and was about to help the others out when they all suddenly retreated into the depths of the dark warehouse. 

It was the perfect diversion. Make them think they’ve won, only to drag them further into their demise. 

There was a knock on the frame to his open door.

“Hey Donghyuck, can we talk?” It was Mark.

“Yeah sure, what’s up?” The atmosphere was calm, but not totally at ease. Mark normally hid away in his room by this time of night, so for him to come knocking on Donghyuck’s door was a bit shocking.

“Nothing, I guess I just wanted to talk with you.” He said.

Donghyuck just shrugged his shoulders as he turned his laptop off and shoved it under his bed. He shared a room with Jeno, who was currently out with the other four guys for some ice cream. Donghyuck had to stay home because he had just recovered from a sprained ankle and didn’t want to put too much strain on it right away. Mark’s excuse was that he was lactose intolerant and said he didn’t like the idea of Donghyuck being home alone for too long.

He sat farther down his bed and patted the spot next to him, signaling for Mark to come to lay next to him.

They had a unique relationship. They didn’t interact with each other when they were with the group the way they did when they were alone. When they were with the others, Donghyuck was constantly teasing Mark and poking fun at him, while when they were alone, all he wanted was to cuddle up to the older and run his hands through Mark’s soft hair. They weren’t platonic, but they weren’t romantic either.

They were just Mark and Donghyuck.

They noticed something was wrong when they heard static over Mark’s line that was connected to all of their earpieces.

“Mark? Mark you there?” Jeno had called over the comm.

No answer had been received.

“Mark Hyung? Hello?” Chenle tried. Still nothing.

“It still says he’s in the same window he started in,” Renjun, who was in the safety of the groups converted bus. He was in charge of all the tech stuff and knowing who and what’s where.

Donghyuck felt that awful monster of a thing in his stomach again, it was telling him that something wasn’t adding up. 

Mark’s hot hands ran up Haechan's back, pushing the shirt up with them and sliding his hands to hold Haechan by the waist.

Their mouths were on each other, tongues fighting together, trying to gain dominance over the other. 

Haechan was straddling Mark, his hands steadying himself on Mark’s bare chest.

They didn’t know how or when it started, but they never wanted it to stop. They were both breathing heavy, Haechan’s breaths coming out with a few sounds of pleasure here and there. Mark moved one of his hands up to Haechan's hair, carding it through his fingers delicately, as if afraid that he would break. 

But Haechan didn’t want Mark to be treating him like glass, not right now. 

He pulled back from the kiss to look at him for a few seconds. 

God damn, Mark was hot. His naked chest rising and falling, catching his breath from their makeout session a few moments prior, his hair tousled and natural, his sharp jawline that had relaxed along with the rest of his face.

It was nice seeing Mark raw. Having him without his cold-hard stare and without his mask. 

“What’s wrong?” He had asked, concern taking over his face as he placed his hands on Haechan's thighs, grounding him from his thoughts.

Haechan smiled, “Nothing, just admiring the view.”

Mark smirked at that, bringing his hands up to tug off Haechan's shirt, it was getting in the way anyways.

After he had done that and thrown the article of clothing somewhere within the messy room, he looped his arms around Haechan’s waist and flipped their positions. 

Mark was on top of him now. He leaned down to Haechan’s neck and began kissing him from his jaw to his collarbones, stopping every once in a while to suck on the golden skin. There were already several red and purple marks littering Haechan's neck when he decided to ask Mark a question that’s been burning him for quite a while.

“Hey, Mark?”

Mark hummed in acknowledgment, still kissing and sucking at Haechan’s honey skin.

“What are we?”

Something was definitely wrong.

Just as Jaemin and Jisung had begun to try and contact their leader, Donghyuck bolted through the large set of double doors that were the original entrance to the area, before all of the destruction. 

The other boys yelled after him, trying to figure out what had caused him to leave in such panic before following after him.

They tried to catch up, thinking it wouldn’t be hard since Donghyuck normally wasn’t the fastest in their group. 

But today wasn’t a normal day and Donghyuck didn’t feel like his normal self. His legs carried him faster than any car or plane could have tried, the adrenaline pumping through him faster than the blood. 

Because Mark was not okay. The bond between them that everyone else had called a hoax and stupid childish imaginations, told him, that something was amiss.

Mark seemed to pause for a second, his face still on the expanse of Haechan’s neck. He resumed after a moment, this time leaving small butterfly kisses, making his way up to his jawline before finally moving back a few inches to inspect the one below him’s face.

“I’d like to think we’re soulmates,” He had said suddenly, making Haechan’s heart skip a beat, “but that’s probably too cheesy.” His eyes flicked between Haechan’s lips and his eyes, staring at one for a few seconds and then moving back to the other for just the same amount of time.

“We can be anything you want to be, as long as I know I have you with me I’ll be fine.”

He could remember that one of the few thoughts that came through his wall of Mark, Mark, Mark, was, “I wonder if this is what wolves feel like?”

The instinctual, animalistic drive that was carrying his feet to places he couldn’t have ever thought of, the need to ensure that Mark was safe, the pounding in his ears telling him that he has to keep going because if he doesn’t, then God knows what will happen to Mark. To them. 

Haechan reconnected their lips in another passionate kiss, this one radiating more than just attraction and want.

It held all of the bottled up emotions that he had kept within himself for the past few months that he’d felt this way about Mark. It told Mark that Haechan needed him like he needed air to breathe.

Their hands were moving all over each other, memorizing every plane and angle and size and location of everything on the other’s body. 

Haechan was really hoping he wasn’t dreaming, because he wouldn’t be able to handle not having Mark, like this, in reality. 

It was by this point that the room had gotten unbearably hot, and Mark had already gotten rid of all of Haechan’s clothes and Haechan had done the same with Mark. He wrapped his legs around Mark’s fit torso, pressing them closer than they’ve ever been before.

He didn’t want to let go of Mark.

He didn’t want him to leave.

Whether it was two minutes or an hour, he couldn’t tell, but the fog in his brain had cleared up enough for him to hear the rough, mumbled voices yelling out orders.

It kicked his body into overdrive. He didn’t think about the others who were undoubtedly still on his tail, albeit 20 feet away, or the pounding and aching of his muscles. Because all of the pain he felt right now would be nothing compared to the pain of losing Mark.

He took a left at the busted corner, he took a right at the blood-stained doorway, he took another right, left, left, right, straight, left, right, straight, left, right--and it was then that his brain had started to ask where are you going? It was then that his gut told him, you’re almost there.

“Wait, what the hell are we going to China for?!” Jaemin had yelled questioningly at Mark.

“I have some business from my father that I need to clean up, and I have two more surprises for you guys once we get there.”

Mark had called Haechan, Jaemin, Jeno, and Jisung to the kitchen table to ‘discuss important information.’ He threw a stack containing all of their passports and plane tickets on the table and said, “Pack your stuff for a four day-three night trip and be ready by noon tomorrow.”

Jeno just nodded his head, not questioning what they would be doing in China. “We’re in a gang, what else would we do in China? Go on a vacation?”

Jisung just looked happy to be getting out of the apartment for a few days, probably excited to ride in a plane for the first time. 

Haechan looked ready to ask five billion questions, probably most of which being related to, “Will I have enough time to get a fancy Chinese massage?”

Jaemin was the newest addition to their crew and was very shocked to find out that they had the money to even afford a trip, let alone to China.

“Thank you Mark Hyung,” Jisung said calmly.

“Wait, what are the surprises?”

Mark smirked at that, “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“But Markie, you know I hate surprises!” Haechan said to him, trying to act cute to try and convince him to tell him the secret.

“Perfect, then it’ll be even better once you see the surprises yourself.”

Haechan pouted for the rest of the day.

He ran into a long, dark hallway, with a large blue door at the end. 

He ran to the end of it and burst through the final door.

On the other side, he found himself on a large balcony overlooking another courtyard. The sky had greyed and darkened since he was last outside, but he could still see the scene as clear as day

Fifty or so men, dressed in black with masks concealing their faces, forming a perfect half-circle in front of a small, wooden stage-like structure.

The end all be all of the night. 

The finale.

“Please enjoy your stay at Yangshuo Green Lotus Hotel,” The hostess said to them after leading them to their rooms. Their plane had landed only two hours before and they decided as a group to stay in the hotel for the day and tend to business the next day.

“Holy shit, this place probably cost more than I ever did,” Jaemin had half-whispered to himself.

Haechan snorted next to him, “Not like that’s hard to beat.”

Jaemin slapped him on the arm. 

“Alright, who wants which room with who?” Mark had asked the group. They had three rooms that needed to be split between the five of them.

“I call rooming with Jeno!” Jaemin had shouted excitedly, clutching onto Jeno’s arm.

“Well, there’s no way I’m rooming with Mr. Moody over there,” Haechan said, pointing his thumb at Jisung, “That’s too much teenage angst for me to deal with for today.”

“Nope, I refuse to let Haechan room by himself. It’ll boost his ego too much and we can’t have that,” Jaemin had stated, still holding onto Jeno.

“This is just sad to watch,” Jeno added from Jaemin’s hold.

“Okay! Jisung gets the room by himself and Haechan rooms with me, how’s that sound to everyone?” Nobody wanted to try and talk against what Mark wanted, so they just shook their heads, agreeing with his statement.

“Okay good. Now that that’s settled, meet here at dawn tomorrow morning, you have the rest of the day to spend as you please.”

Everyone took their luggage into their rooms after Mark gave them the keys. Haechan and Mark entered the room together, dropping their luggage by their beds and then deciding to unwind for a bit before they do anything else.

“You know, if you wanted to room with me so bad you could have just said so Markie,” Haechan said with that shit-eating grin on his face.

Mark scoffed, “What did I tell you about honorifics?”

Haechan pretended to think for a moment, “I don’t seem to remember.”

Mark just shook his head before flopping on his bed and turning on the tv.

“So, what has Mark Lee been up to recently?” Haechan questioned suddenly.

“Revising plans, cleaning up my dad’s mess, trying to avoid my brother. What about you Haechan?”

This was nice. It felt like a breath of fresh air being comfortable like this with Mark. He liked the relaxed, human side of Mark. It was much better than the robotic cold side of him. 

“Just trying to still get accustomed to everything I guess,” He said, his voice lowering a bit.

“Hey, if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know alright?”

Haechan nodded, looking Mark in the eyes firmly. A weird feeling started crawling up his stomach.

“Are you seriously catching feelings right now?” Haechan thought to himself.

Lucas, the big mighty boss of the entire opposing gang, was holding a sick looking and half-conscious Mark by the collar of his jacket. 

Donghyuck’s heart had stopped.

The other four had joined him from the hallway, stunned after looking down at the scene. 

“I’m glad you decided to join us, you’re just in time. If you had taken any longer I would have gotten it over with, but I think this will be much more interesting with an audience, no?” Lucas said, loud enough for it to echo off the walls of the silent courtyard. 

Everyone had a half breath of air stuck in their throats, begging their limbs to move or to do something. But they were stuck in their places, unmoving, unbreathing.

Jeno had, unknown by the others, mumbled coordinates to Renjun over the comm, as well as a barely audible set of instructions. But Renjun got everything loud and clear, ready for the worst.

Donghyuck didn’t know much about Lucas, but he knew enough to know that he didn’t waste his time.

Everything had frozen again, stopping in its place before someone could blink.

The loud sound came first, from the palm of Lucas’s hand, center stage.

The loud thundering of destruction shook everyone from their core. 

“I hope everyone enjoyed their time off?” Mark had asked the group.

The group of five were all inside of a rental van they had gotten from the airport. Mark hadn’t told them where they were going, but they knew that they were only a couple minutes away from their destination.

“Alright, well first things first, I believe I promised you all a few surprises?”

Everyone was excited now. Mark was very kind to all of them, but he had never actually gotten them anything. They were all at the edge of their seats in anticipation. 

Just as it seemed Mark was going to say something else, he had pulled up to a large heavily guarded gate. He pulled up alongside the speaker on the driver’s side.

“Identification.”

Mark put his hand onto a screen underneath the device. It scanned his handprint, before blinking blue and then green. He pulled his hand away and rolled up the window.

Just then the gate started opening on the other side, they were met with an extremely large house that probably cost millions.

“Mark, where are we?”

He smirked from the driver's seat, “Welcome to the Zhong’s.”

He had pulled out a gun and fired it.

It was angled a few feet away, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to hit its target. 

Donghyuck watched the bullet as it blasted from the muzzle, coming out full force, completely unaware of the life it was about to take. 

He watched Mark, who had become completely conscious over the past few minutes, and the look in his eyes.

To anyone else, he looked just as stone-cold as ever, as if the fact that his life was about to end wasn’t even a split second thought for him.

But Donghyuck saw the fear.

He saw the pain.

He saw the rawness of his emotions that came spilling out in that split second moment.

But he was most shocked to see the acceptance.

That dirty bastard.

“You awake?”

Haechan and Mark were laying in bed, cuddled up together after their intimacy a few minutes ago. Haechan was laid out on Mark’s chest, listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart. 

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I just wanted to tell you something I guess,” Haechan had muttered out, feeling a little embarrassed with what he was about to say.

Mark hummed, acknowledging that he was listening.

Haechan took a deep breath in, “I just wanted to say sorry for lying to you all this time.”

Mark turned his head to look at him in confusion.

“My, um,” He cleared his throat, “my name isn’t actually Haechan.”

Haechan turned to make eye contact with Mark, seeing a little shock in his eyes but nothing else.

“It’s actually Donghyuck.”

Haechan watched Mark’s eyes, waiting to see the anger or disappointment in them, but Mark had instead sprouted a small smile. He leaned in and gave Haechan a quick kiss.

“I like it, I think it suits you more.”

“Why the hell are we at a literal million dollar mansion?!” Jaemin half screamed from the back seat.

Mark just kept driving until he was parked right in front of the grand doors of the building. They all filed out of the car, everyone except Mark in shock. Mark had thrown his keys to the Valet who had quickly gone in and brought his car to the garage at the back of the house. 

He walked up to the door and rung the bell placed next to the giant ivory-colored doors.

The door was answered by a maid who escorted them into the entrance hall.

“I presume you are here for the boys?” She had asked politely. Mark nodded his head in confirmation.

She bowed and led them through various hallways until they came upon a room guarded with deep mahogany doors.

“Right through there kind sirs,” She said, bowing once more.

Mark wasted no time and burst into the room. As they all entered, they saw two boys, one blond and one brunette, sitting comfortably on the large L shaped couch.

“Mark Hyung!” The blonde one screeched, hitting an incredibly high note with his voice. He came up and crashed into Mark’s side with a hug, Mark just wrapping his arm around the younger boy and smiling. The other boy had paused the show they were watching and got up with a smile on his face.

“Good to see you guys doing well.” Mark had said to the two of them, releasing the younger from his side.

They nodded.

Mark turned to the others who were still slightly confused as to what they just saw, “Guys, I would like you to meet the newest editions to our group. Chenle,” He motioned to the young blonde one, “and Renjun,” He motioned to the brunette.

The other four boys’ jaws dropped simultaneously.

Mark had known he was going to die, maybe even planned it himself. 

It was his way of repaying his brother for all the times he had wronged him.

His way of protecting the Dreamies from Lucas’s wrath. 

His way of ending the rest of the teams suffering because of all of his past mistakes and debts. 

His way of telling them you can be free now, you don’t have to live in fear. 

You can stop running away from my past, and start living your own future.

The last message Donghyuck had seen, in those dark, disturbed, eyes of Mark, made his lungs shake and his heart hurt and his legs almost gave out underneath him.

Goodbye.

I love you. 

The number of messages and feelings and emotions sent through the split second after the trigger was pulled was enough to choke on. 

And it was after that split second, that the life of Mark Lee, leader of Dream, brother of Lucas, lover of Donghyuck, had ended. 

Once and for all.

“Lucas has struck again,” Mark said to the six of them, earning their attention from the TV that was playing a popular idol group’s most recent comeback.

“What did that bitch do this time?” Haechan asked, getting scolded quickly by Renjun for swearing (“There are babies in this room!” “We’re literally in our twenties Renjun Hyung”)

“He raided both of our allies, Stray Kids and Red Velvet, and stole information on the three of us and our business. My sources say that he and his crew are planning an attack within the next month, so we need to prepare. Most of our larger equipment was in Red Velvet’s warehouse, which also got stolen from. We’ll need to make a trip to our seller in Pohang if we want to be able to handle the next few month’s missions. Any questions?”

“Damn that guy just doesn’t want to give up, I mean what did we ever do to him?” Jeno said.

“It’s not us he’s after, it’s me. I’m sorry you all got dragged into this stupid sibling drama. But now we have to band together to fight back.”

The room gave its silent agreement.

“Alright gang, pack up the bus for a four-day trip. We ride at dawn.”

Donghyuck’s screaming was the only thing you could hear. 

His broken, wordless sobs of anger and resentment and loss.

He felt numb to everything. 

He didn’t hear Renjun over the earpiece giving them a ten-second warning.

He didn’t feel Jaemin pulling him by the arm, trying desperately to get him to move.

He didn’t feel Jeno hoist him onto his back and start running back down the hallway.

He didn’t hear the explosion behind him.

He only felt the emptiness.

The ache in his heart and the death in his soul. 

The fat tears coming down his face and dripping off his chin.

He had all but blacked out until he was thrown into the van, before being driven off, away from the scene where his other half had been ripped from him and made him incomplete.

It was after Jaemin had started driving that everything kicked in.

His senses had suddenly heightened and the pain of his muscles had set in and the final realization that Mark was gone was oozing through his body. 

He remembered slamming himself up against the inside of the bus, yelling and ordering Renjun to open the door, to turn around. Jeno had to hold Donghyuck from behind, had to restrain him. Whether it was to restrain him from breaking the bus, or from hurting himself, or both, he didn’t know.

And he didn’t care. 

What does it matter whether I’m dead or hurt or not? 

I’m empty now, without him.

I’m broken now because he’s gone.

He fought against Jeno’s hold, hard. He had probably bruised him profusely with all his kicking and punching, but he didn’t feel anything but the pain of having Mark gone.

It wasn’t until his body had depleted itself entirely, that he stopped resisting and just sank in on himself and cried. He sobbed so hard, his throat was dry and felt clogged, he was having trouble breathing properly. But Jeno just held him tighter, his own tears meeting the sweaty skin of Donghyuck’s back. 

His vision was so blurry, but he made out the lanky figure of Jisung, sitting in the seat in front of him, his head pressed against the cold window and tears making a river on his face.

He saw Jaemin trying to keep his eyes on the road and make sure they wouldn’t go off-road, blinking heavily and wiping his eyes every other second. 

Renjun, who normally was void of any and all emotions, had a single tear fall from his eye as he turned off all his computer equipment and stared at the blank monitor screen. 

He saw Chenle in his own fit of crying and sobbing and gasping for air, all while watching Donghyuck and looking lost and broken.

After he had calmed down from his aggressive outburst, Jeno had loosened his hold on him slightly. 

Six.

They were six now. 

He tried to get his breathing under control, his tears to become minimal. 

He had lost the love of his life, but the others had lost their leader as well.

And now, he decided, was no time to be selfish.

He harshly broke himself out from Jeno’s arms, startling the black-haired male, and made his way to the front of the bus.

He stood tall, for what felt like another year, all the boys watching him and waiting to see what would happen.

He looked between all of their faces, individually, before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment.

When he opened them, he saw his team, his friends, his brothers.

“Mark is--” His words got caught in his throat, not wanting to come out and admit that that just happened.

He breathed in deep again, clenched his fists. He tried again.

“Mark is dead.”

The only sounds were now of the bus’s engine and shaking windows.

“But what he’s stood for all these years isn’t, and I’m not planning on letting him die in vain.”

He huffed out a shaky breath, another tear escaping before he composed himself again, “So if you’re still with me,” he paused.

The memories from his past few years with the crew flashed before his eyes.

All the smiles, the hardships, the cuts and scrapes, and love. All the enemies and allies and the emotions rooted deep in their history together. 

“Then we ride at dawn.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry :((((
> 
> i really hope you enjoyed this story (even though it's sad) 
> 
> this oneshot helped me out of my six month long writer's block and it will forever be my child
> 
> this was the first thing i wrote in so long where i felt happy with how my writing came out so i hope everyone can appreciate it just as much as i do


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